Critical Mass
by limowrecked94
Summary: An unexpected trip to Central City reveals a new side of Ray Palmer.
1. Chapter 1

===  
AUTHOR'S NOTE:  
I wrote this out of annoyance that Arrow's showrunners have decided to make Ray Palmer pretty much a dollar store version of Iron Man (as well as make Felicity into a cheap, knockoff Pepper). Upset that they stripped away his ability to shrink, I decided to use the present canon to restore that ability by approaching it in the most sensible way I can think of: move Ray out of the brooding and earthly Arrow universe and create an event in the Flash's universe that endows him with powers.

If only.  
===

Ray Palmer leans back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. He turns to look at the clock. 3:58AM. With a sigh, he slumps further into his seat, hoping to melt into it and disappear.

No progress. Again.

There's a knock at his door. Felicity lets herself in.

"What are you doing?" she asks, looking at the mess around them.

He lets out an exhausted sigh, "Nothing, apparently."

She makes her way over and observes the A.T.O.M. chest plate being dissected on Ray's table. Bits of wiring and french fries are strewn about.

"Gross," she says, clearing a spot for herself to lean on.

"Why are you here?" Ray asks, double checking the clock.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe someone didn't answer any of my calls," she says, grabbing his cell phone to show him his 45 missed calls, "At this point, I'm just making sure you're alive so I can get a paycheck sometime soon."

"Right," he breathes.

"I don't know why you're doing this to yourself," Felicity says, thumbing the chest piece. "The suit works just fine."

"But it could be better," Ray answers, frustrated.

"This is better?" she holds up two broken pieces, tossing them back on the table.

"But it's not even harnessing any of that dwarf star energy yet," he replies, grabbing a dish from a nearby table. He stares at the ground up star in frustration. He purchased that mine and tore it apart for nothing. His shoulders drop. "You're right," he says, brows raised in disappointed realization. "What am I doing?"

"Get some rest," Felicity says, patting her boss' shoulders. "And deodorant."


	2. Chapter 2

Palmer Tech's VP arrives at the office the next morning to see Ray sliding his suit pieces into a large bin.

"What are you doing?" she asks. "Why have I been asking you that so often?"

Ray laughs and shakes his head, "This?" he motions at the crawlspace he calls an office, "This isn't working."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you give up," Felicity says, putting a hand on his to stop him. It felt bizarre to tell Ray not to give up. It was always Oliver who needed that speech.

Ray shrugs, "Can't win them all," he laughs tragically as he picks up the bin and heads for the exit.

"Where are you going with that?"

"To the storage unit," he replies, making his way to the elevator.

"But-"

Ray turns to look at Felicity, "Look, Felicity. I appreciate your support. But I had plans with this suit and none of them involved being Robocop." She watches the elevator door close on him before she can say a word.

"I like Robocop," she says to no one.


	3. Chapter 3

Felicity makes her way to the cafeteria to pick up her regulatory bagel. She hovers over the seemingly endless cream cheese selection when she notices the Flash on a nearby screen. She stops perusing the cheese to watch.

"Central City's Flash has apprehended a metahuman by the name of Mirror Master in the city's south side-"

The VP is struck with a sudden sense of inspiration. She stuffs her bagel into her mouth and heads outside, authoritatively scrolling through the contacts on her phone.

She makes her way around the Tech building's corner and approaches the storage units.

"Hello?" asks a voice.

"Hi, Caitlin? It's me, Felicity," she says, observing the keypad on Ray's unit.

"Felicity! What's up?" sings an enthusiastic Caitlin Snow.

Felicity laughs at the pathetic excuse for a security pad and unlocks it in a few effortless keystrokes. "I was wondering if you were busy at the lab," she continues. She pulls the door open to look inside. "I could use your help on a project," she says, staring at the parts bin.

Ray is absently scrolling through his cascade of emails when his cell rings. Felicity.

"Hello?"

"Yeah, Ray? I just got off the phone with my mom and she's in the hospital-"

"Oh. My. Is she okay? What happened?" Ray's brows furrow with concern.

"Um. She…" Felicity looks at her surroundings, "Hurt herself doing parkour."

"She what?"

"You know how my mom is," Felicity laughs nervously, angry at her poor excuse, "She loves… stairs."

Ray isn't surprised by the oddness of the Smoak women. "Well, is she all right?"

"Oh yeah! She's great. She really messed up her ankle so I told her I'd be there to help her out with….. You know. Stairs." Felicity squeezes her eyes shut at the farfetched statement.

"Of course," Ray replies, going back to his email, "Take all the time you need."

Her shoulders drop in relief, "You're a life saver."

Ray laughs at the irony of her statement. "Go handle those stairs."


	4. Chapter 4

Felicity arrives in Central City with three suitcases worth of the A.T.O.M. suit in tow. She sees Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco waiting for her on the platform. Team Flash runs up to grab her bags. Cisco almost drops his, shocked at how much it weighs.

"What's in this? A jet engine?" he asks, picking it back up.

"Close."

The four of them catch up as they wait for a cab to S.T.A.R Labs.

* * *

Cisco unzips the bag to see the familiar suit inside. "Oh dude, what happened?" he asks, pulling out miscellaneous scraps from the suitcase. "Ray didn't" he leans towards her "…you know-"

"No!" Felicity exclaims. "But he did ditch the suit."

"Was it before or after it got got hit by a train?" Barry asks, sorting through the pieces.

"A train would have made sense. No, this is the work of a madman," Felicity says, dumping a few more pieces onto the table.

"Why would Ray do this to his own suit?" Caitlin asks.

"That's why I'm here," Felicity answers, "I guess he was trying to access the energy of some dwarf star particles?"

Cisco looks up. "Dwarf star particles?" he repeats.

"That stuff they've been using to synthesize fake diamonds?" Barry asks.

"Yeah-" Felicity answers.

Cisco approaches Felicity, trying to sort the dozens of thoughts swirling in his mind, "But dwarf star matter in its pure form is incredibly unstable," he postulates, "Unless…Unless he wants to be unstable."

"Sounds about right," Felicity answers flatly.

"No, I mean- maybe he wants to harness that property to make himself atomically unstable," Cisco says. "If he could stabilize and control the particles, he would be able to-"

"Freely manipulate his mass and density," Dr. Wells interjects, entering the room. "He intends to-"

"Shrink," Felicity whispers.

"That's correct, Miss Smoak," Harrison affirms, approaching the team.

"Dr. Wells," Felicity says, surprised.

"Miss Smoak. It's nice to see you again," Harrison smiles up at her. "I see you've brought something for us."

Felicity can only stammer at Harrison's sudden appearance. His presence had always been rather intimidating.

"So Mr. Palmer is looking to use white dwarf star matter to manipulate his density," Dr. Wells continues, circling the table to observe the parts, "I take it that's why he bought that mine in Keystone?"

Felicity nods.

"Excuse my candor, but not only is he trying to manipulate one of the most unstable particles known to man, the radiation from the material alone would-" he attempts to find a proper word to describe the magnitude of the danger- "There's a reason they sold that mine to him, Miss Smoak."

She looks around in confusion.

Barry lifts his face from his clasped hands to address Felicity, "A total of six miners went missing in Keystone," he explains.

"What?" Felicity looks at Caitlin and Cisco, whose faces confirm Barry's statement.

"This was before Ray got involved," Cisco continues, "The city was happy to take the money and make it his problem."

"What do you mean missing?"

"As in missing," Barry answers. "Gone. Disappeared."

"It was as if they vanished into thin air," Caitlin adds.

"They shrank," Felicity whispers in horror.

"They shrank," Wells repeats.


	5. Chapter 5

"I have to tell Ray," Felicity shakes her head as she digs through her purse for her phone. She picks it up to dial but remembers, "No, wait. I'm supposed to be taking care of my mom's parkour injury."

"What?" Barry asks, confused.

"It's a long story," she says, putting her phone away.

She rubs her brow with her fingers, massaging at the stress that's collected itself there. "Well, clearly Ray has no business dealing with something so dangerous," she concludes, looking at the suit pieces before her.

Caitlin nods in agreement. "He's better off."

"Yeah," Felicity nods, "There's nothing wrong with being Robocop."

"Sure?" Caitlin replies in a supportive confusion.

"It's good you came to us about it," Dr. Wells says optimistically, "Ray could have put himself in real danger had he continued this project."

"It's good he has you on his side," Barry adds.

Felicity lets out a sigh of disappointment and relief. "All this excitement's made me hungry," she finally says. "Where can I get a trough full of waffles?"

"There's a place on Fifth," Barry answers, looking through his phone. "You in?" he looks over at Caitlin and Cisco.

"I'm starving," Caitlin replies, grabbing her purse. She joins Barry and Felicity at the door. "Are you coming, Cisco?"

Cisco stares at the fragmented suit on the table, "I'll meet you guys there."

"You sure?" Barry asks, "We can wait."

"No, go ahead. I need to take care of something," Cisco says as he pulls up a web page.

Without Felicity to scold him, Ray can go back to his work unmolested. He peers through his microscope to observe the stardust further. He stares up at the results on a projector in front of him, baffled. He hadn't gotten the dust to react to any compounds at all, let alone become unstable. He glances at his stack of binders full of failed chemical reactions.

"Unstable my ass," he mutters, scribbling another failure down into his records.

He scoots his chair to a nearby station to look at the dwarf star fragments he'd kept intact. He brings them back over to the microscope to scrape a few more samples with a knife. Ray clumsily drops it and cuts his thumb, his blood splattering onto the slide below.

"Great," he mutters, reaching for the knife. He sucks on his wound, staring at his mess. Just as he grabs hold of the blade, he notices his blood instantly evaporate off the slide.

His brows raise.

Ray quickly stares up at the projection. His blood cells weren't evaporating. They were shrinking.

Half giddy, half in disbelief, Ray bolts out of his chair and stares into his microscope. He splashes some water from his bottle onto the slide.

No reaction.

He stares at the tip of his bloody thumb.

Ray arrives at his storage unit and hurriedly mashes the security code into the keypad. He practically rips the door over his head and dashes inside.

The bin is gone.

Reeling in disbelief, he looks around the unit. The bin is gone.

He smooths the hair back, retracing his steps. He'd only taken the bin to the unit. Nowhere else. And nobody could break into the unit without tripping the alarm except-

Felicity.

Ray takes a seat at his desk and yanks his phone out of his pocket to dial his coworker. Even if Felicity did take the suit, it wasn't like she was going to admit it. He had to be more clever than that.

"Hello?" asks Felicity on the other line. She and Cisco are in line at Jitter's.

"Felicity," Ray says calmly, "How's your mom?"

"Oh, my mom?" Felicity furrows her brows in desperation, looking over at Cisco, "She's…she's fine. Her wrist is a lot better."

"I thought you said it was her ankle," Ray replies, typing furiously on his computer.

"Oh. Right, right! I mean, she got all kinds of messed up. You know how it is. Isn't that right mom?" Felicity pretends to speak to no one.

"Yes, dear!" Cisco shouts in a pathetic excuse for a falsetto. Felicity glares at Cisco, who can only shrug.

"That's good to hear," Ray says, collecting himself.

There's a pause.

"Is there anything else?" Felicity asks nervously.

"No," Ray answers, pulling up a satellite image onto his screen, "Just seeing how you were doing," he says as he stares at Felicity's blinking dot in Central City.


	6. Chapter 6

Ray's exits his towncar, approaching the hangar. His umbrella holder rushes up to cover him as they near his private jet. An assistant hands him a tablet and a bag of pretzels. He laughs, "You know me too well."

The CEO greets the pilot. "Rick, thanks for being available on such short notice."

"What's it you always say about flying, Mr. Palmer?"

"Only that it's the safest way to travel," Ray answers, grinning. He climbs inside the jet, smiling at the crew as he walks past. A flight attendant passes him a blanket.

"Central City, Mister Palmer?" asks the pilot over the intercom.

"Central City."

* * *

Barry's dinner with Team Flash and Felicity is interrupted by a phone call from Joe. "Hello?" Barry answers, ready for the worst.

"Are you near a TV?" Joe asks.

Barry looks around, "No, what's up?"

"Keystone just recorded a major change in atmospheric pressure."

"How major?" Barry asks, turning away from his dinner.

"A violent storm lasting only thirty-eight seconds over a two and a half mile radius directly over the mine."

"Mark?" Barry murmurs.

"Mark."

"I'll be right there," Barry says, pocketing his phone. He gathers his jacket and looks at the team, "Guys, we have to go."

"Where? What happened?" asks a concerned Felicity.

"Weather Wizard."

* * *

"We are now approaching Keystone," announces the pilot over the intercom. "It'll be about an hour until descent into Central."

Ray leans over to look out the window. He flags down a nearby flight attendant, pointing a thumb at the mine below, "That's mine," he jokes, "Get it? Because I own it-" he grins, celebrating his own pun.

"That's nice," the disinterested attendant replies, pouring him some more tea.

Ray's chest tightens from the awkwardness. He loosens his tie and goes back to staring out the window, momentarily glancing at the empty seat Felicity usually occupies across from him.

He stares blankly at the ground below when he sees a strange dark spot hovering over the mine ahead. He leans in closer to observe it. A storm cloud. A concentrated, lone storm cloud.

Palmer reaches for his tablet, pulling up Keystone's weather report. Nothing but sun. He glances out the window again in confusion and horror as the cloud rapidly grows in size.

* * *

Barry races to the mine, stopping in front of the increasingly large storm cloud gathering above it. A violent wind blows away several police cars at the scene, preventing the cops from entering. Barry searches for the perpetrator, fighting against the gale force winds. He enters the dark mine.

"I know you're here, Mark," Barry voice echoes off the walls. "There's no point in hiding."

"Who's hiding?" answers Mark's voice from behind. Barry turns to face the voice, only to be hit in the back by a densely packed ball of ice. It knocks the wind out of him, dropping the speedster to his knees to catch his breath. He dashes to avoid more snowballs as a barrage of ice flies past. The snowballs turn into sharp ice shards, whistling past Barry's face.

Barry stops to talk to the metahuman. "What do you want with the mine, Mark?" he asks, breathless. He spots a number of men carrying huge pieces of the star towards the mine exit. He races over to stop them when the Wizard covers his path in ice, causing Barry to lose his balance. He attempts to stand, but can't find traction on the icy ground. The wizard approaches him, pelting him with snow and ice, freezing his entire body in a block of ice.

A few helicopters circle around the mine carrying gunmen. The Wizard scoffs at the feeble attempt to stop the robbery and pulls each chopper down with a ferocious wind, hurling them into the crater surrounding the mine.

Barry's eyes widen in dismay as he watches the helicopters crash into the ground.

"Stay down, Speedster," Mark says arrogantly, striding past the frozen Flash.

Barry concentrates on his muscles. Millimeter by millimeter, he vibrates his arms and legs, slowly melting away at the block. He frees himself and faces the Wizard, who lifts an arm to the sky, pulling an overhead plane out of the sky.

Flash stares up at the sky in horror.

* * *

Ray sees ripples forming in his tea. Before he can make anything of it, the plane lurches to one side. The teacup goes sliding across his tray table, smashing into the wall. Ray braces himself on his armrest, searching for his flight attendant. She brushes hair out of her face and attempts to stand, but the plane lurches again, sending her falling into Ray's arms.

"What's happening?" Ray shouts up at the pilot.

"Unexpected turbulence. Something is sucking us backwards," the pilot answers, "Fasten your seatbelts."

Ray hurriedly grabs for his belt and buckles it urgently. He leans forward to help the attendant with hers. The lights in the cabin flicker violently as the passengers are thrashed back and forth. Palmer watches the entire sky darken with storm clouds.

"We're going down!" the pilot shouts over the speaker. The oxygen masks drop overhead.

The attendant squeezes her eyes shut, gripping the armrest as Ray grabs a mask and pulls it over his face.

Barry's chest tightens with anticipation as the Wizard hurls a plane towards him. The scarlet speedster rushes out of the way as the aircraft slams nose first into the mine. A brilliant flash of light engulfs the mine, exploding in a wave of heat.

The plane.

Barry watches helplessly as the Wizard climbs aboard the getaway van and speeds away. He rushes towards the plane crash, holding up an arm to shield himself from the heat. The smoke clears to reveal a Palmer Technology private aircraft wedged in the mine. Flash's brows raise in disbelief as he forces the door of the plane open.

He takes a look around the cabin. It appears to be completely empty. Confused, Barry climbs inside, scanning the aircraft for survivors. He spies the top of someone's head. Sifting through the debris, Barry unearths an unconscious Ray Palmer.

He looks around the cabin again. Ray appears to be alone.

"What's happening?" Felicity asks through the comm-link.

"I don't understand," Barry says, standing up to look around.

"What is it?"

"It's Ray."


	7. Chapter 7

Felicity leans in towards the mic. "Ray?" She swallows the ball of nerves in her throat. "Palmer?"

"Yeah," Barry says, checking Ray's pulse. "He's alive."

Felicity's eyes close in relief.

"But there's no one else in this plane," Barry says, continuing to search through the debris. He gulps, "They're gone."

Cisco's shoulders drop.

"Just like the miners," says Felicity.

"Barry, you need to get out of there," Wells shouts into the mic.

"I need to get Ray to a hospital," Barry says, pulling Ray's arm over his shoulder.

"No," directs Harrison Wells.

Team Flash looks at Wells in dismay.

"No hospital's going to know what to do with him." Wells takes a deep breath, "You bring him here."

* * *

An exhausted Barry enters the lab with Ray in tow. Cisco rushes to lift A.T.O.M.'s legs and carry him over to the infirmary bed.

"Someone notify the press he's safe," Wells says, approaching the patient. "Call Iris." Barry nods and leaves the room to grab his phone.

"The explosion," Cisco says, removing Ray's jacket, "it must have reacted with the dwarf star and sent out a burst of radiation," he continues, "the other passengers must have…."

"Shrunk away," Felicity claps a hand over her mouth, holding back tears.

"It's okay," Caitlin reassures her friend.

"This is all my fault," chokes Felicity, "He came here because I took the suit."

"You didn't know…this…was going to happen," says Caitlin, wrapping an arm around the unconsolable Felicity.

Cisco works to hook Ray up to his computer, glaring at the incoming stats.

Wells draws closer, looking up at the screen. Caitlin joins him, preparing to collect a blood sample.

"He's stable," Caitlin reports, turning to look at Dr. Wells.

"But how?" Barry asks, looking at the part-time vigilante on the bed.

Palmer thrashes, snapping himself awake. The team jumps back reflexively.

"Where am I?" he looks around the room. "Barry? Cisco?" he turns to see Felicity. "Felicity?"

"…Surprise?" Felicity says with a shrug.

Ray sits up, ripping the censors off his bare chest. "What happened?" he touches the wound on his forehead.

"Mr. Palmer, if you could just relax," Caitlin coaxes Ray with her hand, "We just need to run a few tests."

"I feel fine," Ray says, looking at his hands.

"That's what Barry said when he woke up," Cisco mumbles.

"Really," Ray replies, "I'm fine. Why am I here? What's going on?" he grabs his shirt.

"Mr. Palmer," Harrison explains, hushing the room, "You were in a plane crash."

Ray stares at Wells in disbelief. "A plane crash?"

"You got sucked into a metahuman storm," Barry continues, "Your plane crashed into the Keystone City mine."

Ray swallows a lump in his throat, "Where's everyone else?"

Felicity struggles to keep herself from crying. Wells collects his thoughts, "They… didn't make it."

"The dwarf star radiation," Cisco adds, "It-"

"Shrunk them." Ray says.

"So you knew about this?" Felicity gasps, stepping towards her boss. Ray looks up at the VP.

Rays shoulders drop as he searches for his next words. "I thought I could control it," he explains, standing up. "I thought…if I could figure out how the star matter works, I can find out what happened to those people." He walks over to a table to observe the pieces of his suit. "I thought maybe I could help them," his head hangs in disappointment.

Cisco sees a blinking on his computer screen. He walks over to look at the alert. "Barry. Another spike in the atmosphere. Wizard's on the move."

Barry studies the map with Cisco.

"I'll help," Ray offers, looking at his suit.

"Not in your condition," Caitlin interjects.

"I'm fine," he reassures her as he locates his gloves. "The chest," he says, looking through the other pieces. "Where's the chest piece?" he glares at Felicity.

"It was there before," Felicity looks around the room.

Cisco's eyes dart nervously around the room as he listens to the conversation in the other room.

"Cisco," Barry says. "You're hiding something."

"What? No," Cisco says, waving the comment away with his hand.

"Cisco."

Ramon sighs, "I…may have taken the chest piece."

"Taken it where?" Felicity overhears, walking over to the computers. Ray follows. The entire room grills Cisco. Wells approaches.

Caught in another lie, Cisco takes a deep breath, "I have this friend. From college. She's studied dwarf stars before. I thought maybe she could look at the suit and-"

"Where is it?" Ray asks, upset that a stranger now has a piece of the suit.

"Cole Tech," Cisco answers, wincing.

"Cole Tech?" Ray practically chokes. "Cole Tech is Palmer Industries' number one competitor."

"I know," Cisco replies, sighing, "But I didn't tell her that the suit was yours, I-"

Ray grabs his jacket and puts it on. "We're going to Cole Tech," he announces. "And you're coming with me."

Felicity puts her arms into her coat, "I'm coming too."

"No," Ray says, "One of us needs to stay and help Barry." Felicity nods in agreement and takes a seat at Cisco's desk.

"I should really run more tests," Caitlin begins.

"I'm fine!" Ray shouts as he heads for the exit.

"Are all of you guys like this?" Caitlin asks, glaring at Barry.


End file.
